Statutes & Regulations

Planning in California is governed and directed by an ever evolving and changing body of legislation and case law. At the heart of these laws are those establishing requirements for general plans, specific plans, zoning, land division, redevelopment, and environmental analysis. The Statutes and Regulations drop down menu summarizes these relevant California statutes and provides links to the full text of the laws and supporting guidelines.

The Subdivision Map Act regulates the division
of land in California. The Act requires
that all land divisions be approved by the city or county in which they are
located. Each city and county must adopt
a subdivision ordinance regulating land division consistent with the
requirements of the Act. Tentative
subdivision or parcel maps must be submitted to a city or county for review,
approval, and recordation. Subdivision
maps, which are required for land divisions resulting in five or more parcels,
must include a broad range of detailed info

Zoning
is the division of a city or county into districts for the purpose of
regulating land use and development standards.
The typical zoning ordinance regulates land use by dividing the
community into districts or “zones” and specifying the uses that are to be
permitted, conditionally permitted, and prohibited within each zone. Text and
map(s) describe the distribution and intensity of land uses in such categories
as residential, commercial, industrial, and open space.

The specific plan is a planning tool typically
used to plan a particular portion of a city or county. Often a specific plan is used by a public
agency to implement the general plan in selected areas of the community
requiring special planning attention. A
specific plan is also used by private property owners to plan large land areas,
particularly where there are multiple owners.

California State law requires each
city and county to adopt a general plan “for the physical development of a
county or city, and any land outside its boundaries which bears relation to its
planning” (§65300). The California Supreme Court has called the general plan the
“constitution for future development.” The general plan expresses a community’s
development goals and embodies public policy relative to the distribution of
future land uses, both public and private.

The California Community Redevelopment Act was
enacted in 1945 to give local governments the tools necessary to address
problems such as blight, degraded buildings, and a lack of housing. While the
Act is now known as Community Redevelopment Law (CRL), the goals of
redevelopment remain the same: to focus on problems in developed areas. The CRL
was revised in 1993 to further restrict and focus redevelopment activities,
ensuring that they can occur only in predominately urbanized areas on previously
or currently developed properties.

A joint initiative of San Joaquin Valley Councils of Governments representing each of the region's eight counties, the San Joaquin Valley Air Pollution Control District, the Great Valley Center, and the Fresno State Community and Regional Planning Center